A Lifestyle of Fitness

An office says something about a person. It shows things about them without ever needing to say a word.

And Joe Hughes’s packed, broom closest of an office, at Sedona Private Fitness in Cedar Grove, where his door, held open by a faded pink and green 15-pound barbell, won’t even open all the way, says a lot.

“I don’t spend much time in here,” he says with a laugh, as an excuse for the mess.

A collage of photos fills the white walls in front of his tiny glass desk of his daughter, wife and him skiing, hiking, kayaking or doing anything outside.

Judging by the size of the gym he’s owned for 15 years, with only six cardio machines, a small amount of free weights and a few with balls, Hughes encourages people in his private sessions to get out of the house just like him.

So, in a specialized, or more untraditional way, Hughes will take on each client as a challenge but turn that challenge back on them. He completes the standard physical fitness evaluation but then he asks them, “What do you want to do?”

“It’s not just training to look good,” he says. “It’s a lifestyle and exercise is a means not an ends.”

From running a 5K to being 79 years old and just wanting to be able to walk around Manhattan, he caters to everyone goals and builds a program around it.

In his first real job, Hughes taught disabled men and women how to play sports, like how to ski or scuba dive, and he says “that empowerment or ability to move their body gave them a fabulous rush.”

That empowerment and enrichment of life is the energy he wanted to pull into his training in opening the gym he explains.

Depending on the person, Hughes, who lives in Montclair, brings them out on excursions to the Delaware Water Gap or the Lenape Trail.

His process is an attempt to make the training focused on more of the practical aspects of life to be able to live a better life.

He also works with older clients where he will focus on balance drills. He says they work on catching their balance so they don’t fall and hurt themselves.

“Or maybe something like putting a kettle bell above their head and what is that good for?” Hughes asks, rhetorically. “Well it's important because that's putting your luggage in an overhead when you go on a trip.”

For the older members, he practices sit to stand drills without grabbing on to something because it usually done unconsciously and it will eventually evolve to losing leg strength.

“I always felt being able to move your body or your body being able to answer whatever challenge you put in front of it is important,” he says, as he stands and sits, demonstrating unconscious actions we do everyday as exercise. “And how you look will follow.”

This overall message, a new lifestyle, is what Hughes wants his clients to adopt. He prints a quarterly newsletter filled with local runs, motivation articles, informative pieces. The back of the newsletter gives healthy cooking options with a recipe.

“I would rather teach someone a life skill like, I’ve got you into climbing or hiking and you bring your spouse,” he says. “Then your partner and you are living this healthy lifestyle. Then your take your kids out hiking or something and they learn that too.” 

Sedona Fitness is located at 479 Pompton Ave. in Cedar Grove.

For questions, please call Sedona Fitness at (973) 239-2318 or click here.